Be Brave Not Safe

In the prior post (We Design Our Life) I commented on the fact that we each have the ability to set our own pay. And, that there are certain vocations where we can increase our pay overnight / every night.

Undoubtedly some think I’m crazy, while others are genuinely curious as to how one could go about doing so.

To answer the question…

Can we REALLY set our own pay?

In a word: Yep!

For those of us in the free world, the amount of income we take in is 100% OUR CHOICE!

Before we get started, I think it is crucially important to remind the reader of a couple of points.

1. We must not focus on (worry about) the making of money. That is at the completely wrong end of the spectrum. We must focus on the amount and quality of service we provide to humanity. Because, the more service we provide, the higher are our rewards. Cause and effect…
2. We must be sure to maintain a balance and not make our vocation the central area of focus in our lives. That said, it certainly is NOT a bad place to apply “significant” focus so that we can provide for our family (e.g., put food on the table, clothes on their backs, a roof over their heads, a college degree in their hands, etc.) as well as help those who are less fortunate.

Now that we’ve covered that, here we go…

At a high-level, there are a few categories of vocations we’ll cover, which are listed in the order of least to most flexibility in terms of increasing one’s income. That is, the first items listed typically take the “most” time, while the latter items can offer quite rapid (in some cases, overnight) adjustments in pay!

• Salaried
• Hourly
• Commissioned
• Self-Employed

Salaried

In summary, salaried workers are paid the same amount each pay period regardless of whether they work 40 or 80 hours each week. The typical PERFORMANCE review cycle for salaried jobs is annual, which also typically coincides with the opportunity to receive a salary adjustment.

If you didn’t know…Most companies have a set budget as to the total amount of salary increases they plan on providing each year to their employee-base. And, this budget is then rationed across all departments in the company. At some point, this rolls down to each individual manager who has the unenviable task of deciding how their allotted increase will be “distributed” amongst the employees in their department.

The process involves the manager going through the list of employees to determine who DESERVES to get a portion of the budgeted increase, and how much.

You’ll note that there are 2 words immediately above which are in CAPS: PERFORMANCE and DESERVES.

Said another way, no-one deserves a raise just for showing up to work. The people who deserve a raise are those who have demonstrated a marked improvement in their PERFORMANCE since the last review cycle. That is, they have made themselves more valuable to the company and therefore deserve more pay.

For those people who simply show-up: no raise should be expected. They are no more valuable this year, than last. This can also mean they are actually falling behind…As a result, they should expect to be among the first who are jettisoned from the company during the next economic downturn, as the company seeks to shave costs.

To ensure we are in alignment with the opportunities that exist to increase our pay, it is important, during the normal course of working with our boss, to clarify expectations related to:

• The foundational elements of the role and what we must demonstrate each day for performance and proficiency
• What is considered exceptional (above and beyond) performance which would likely warrant a raise and future promotions

We simply need to initiate the conversation, if the boss doesn’t…

While we can “choose” to wait for (or more importantly, work towards) the next performance review cycle, we have other options with regards to receiving a more timely raise.

• If we’ve worked at a particular company, in a specific role, for some time (more than a couple of years) we can consider applying for open internal jobs that provide a higher salary or more growth potential.
• We can look for higher paying roles outside of our current company.

In summary, salaried workers “can” take measures to increase their pay, but it takes more time (relatively speaking) than some of the other categories of workers, which follow…

Hourly

Much of what was covered above can apply here, in terms of the hourly rate that a person EARNS. And, like salaried workers, adjustments to that rate can take time. But there are other options, as well!

Given the nature of hourly work, we can always find out if there are opportunities to WORK MORE HOURS! The first person to discuss this with is obviously the boss. However, do NOT approach them from the perspective of: I need to make more money. Can I work more hours? 

That approach is making your goal their problem. Said another way, it is NOT meeting their need, which is two-fold:

• Achieving higher levels of productivity / output
• Decreasing the cost per unit of output

So, THINK about how your extra hours will help the boss accomplish these objectives. For example:

• Are you an expert or high performer on your team?
• Can you CRANK OUT more productivity during extended hours of work, with fewer people around to bother you?
• Can you perform end-of-day clean-up or next day preparation that will overall improve productivity and/or reduce team costs?
• Can you take on the overflow work that isn’t getting down by others?

Think, think, think…

And, if the opportunity doesn’t exist within your immediate department, might it elsewhere in the company? That is, could you put in a few hours for another / adjacent team?

Bottom-line: If there is important work that doesn’t have a negative impact on the department manager’s budget by doing during “overtime”, you will most likely be “awarded” this work. That is, if, and only if, you can demonstrate high levels of performance and productivity.

Said another way, you need to be doing MUCH MORE than just extending the hours between when you punch-in and punch-out. You must increase the amount of service and value delivered during these working hours.

Commissioned

We are now entering that space where it is quite possible to increase our pay overnight / every night.

Another term for “commissioned” workers is, (and don’t be scared off) Sales.

I know, I know. You are not a sales person.

WRONG!

If you are able to convince me that you are NOT “into sales” you have just proven the point that you are! EVERYONE is in sales. You are selling when you try to convince your kids to “do the right thing.” You are selling when you are sharing an idea / approach to getting the job done at work. And, believe it or not, you are in the position of selling EVERY MOMENT OF EVERY DAY while on the job. That is, if you don’t actively sell yourself to your employer every day (by doing the best job possible, regardless of your pay) you may soon have your next sales opportunity (pitching yourself to new / prospective employers).

Did you know that Sales is the highest paid profession on the planet? That is, there really is no limit to how much a good salesperson can earn.

If a salesperson sold X yesterday, they need only sell X+Y today to immediately increase their pay. Yes, it is realized that some products / services have longer sales cycles than others. The point is, the sales person has control of their income, based on how much they produce (sell).

Want to earn more: make that call. And, after that, make another, and so on…

Self-Employed

This vocational category can take on many forms, including:

• A tradesman (plumber, electrician and so on)
• A professional (doctor, dentist, lawyer)
• A consultant
• A small or home-based business

I was recently on the phone with a friend (a plumber) as we had a clogged drain pipe (beyond what a “do-it-yourselfer” wanted to tackle). During the conversation I learned that his business is continuing to do very well (he is out straight with work). He commented: “It is crazy!”

I asked: “Are you grooming an apprentice?”

His response: “No, they only slow me down.”

Tradesmen, Professionals and Consultants do have the option of seeing more customers, patients or clients, to increase their income… to a point. That is, at some point we run out of hours in the day and days in the week. I know, I’ve pushed these limits and thankfully realized when to pull back before destroying myself or my family 🙂

And, I know firsthand that grooming an apprentice (initially) slows us down. However, if we (the self-employed) want to grow our income we absolutely MUST groom apprentices to replicate ourselves. Or, we are stuck at an income level that is directly tied to our own, direct efforts…I hate being stuck 🙂

The reality is that the most difficult part of training-up an apprentice is when we are getting ready to turn them loose on our customers to perform unsupervised “in our good name.” Why? Because they make mistakes, in our good name.

Just remember…We made mistakes (probably some BIG ones) in someone else’s good name (our first boss, for example).

So, let’s not be selfish. Let’s give a novice (or budding expert) a chance to grow under our tutelage and even make a few mistakes in our good name. It happens to be a key approach for the self-employed to generate unlimited income.

Finally, there are numerous opportunities to generate income from a small or home-based business, which may be something we can do in addition to our “day job.” And, this can one day turn into our only source of income. Examples include:

• Applying our skills as a handyman (or woman). Can we fix, paint or clean stuff?
• Converting a hobby (making jewelry, etc.) into income (sell it online).
• Sharing our skills, experiences, interests, etc. online via blogging and/or writing a book.
• Network Marketing

Case studies abound, for each of the above, where someone turned an extra-curricular activity into a full-time (or better) income.

In closing, setting our pay is directly correlated to the amount of value and service we provide to humanity. Up our service and our pay will, ultimately, go up. It is all, truly, directly within our control.

All we need to do is put our thinking apparatus to work. And, leverage information which is readily available on how others have done it. For example, if you’d like to learn how to:

• Land that next professional job, click here
• Launch a consulting business, click here

And, if you aspire to do something else, the vast, unlimited resource known as the Internet is available for research.

All the best!

Life doesn’t just happen. It really doesn’t.

We consciously (or unconsciously) design it – from scratch!

It is simply amazing how fortunate each and every one of us are, who have been born into the free world (known as America, or a handful of other countries). We can, quite literally, be, do, have, become whatever we truly set our minds to.

If, and only if, we decide upon it and work at it – until!

While there are a few exceptions (e.g., those born with birth defects, seriously injured in an accident or act of war, or suffering an illness, etc.) the rest of us have the absolute choice as to how our lives turn out. And, it is often these “exceptions” who provide prime examples of what can be accomplished when someone truly puts their mind to it.

Consider Helen Keller.

Enough said…

So, let’s break things down…

Our Health:

Most everyone wants to live a healthy, vibrant life. And, it is in our power to do so, based on the minute-by-minute choices we make every single day. For example:

• Who decides what we put into our mouth?
  • What we eat for breakfast (a donut or piece of fruit)?
  • Do we drink coffee or soda all day vs. water?
  • If we have a nourishing, low-fat, lunch and dinner?
  • Do we have that big piece of cake or pie before going to bed?
• Who decides the amount of exercise we get vs. time spent in front of the one-eyed monster (TV or computer)?
• Who decides the seeds that we plant in our powerhouse mind?
  • Do we aimlessly follow the eye-candy on the Internet, in Facebook or while channel surfing?
  • Are we dumping the daily garbage of sensationalism (news) into our heads? Really, what purpose is this fulfilling? I attended a personal development seminar many years ago when the speaker commented: “I NEVER watch the news or read the paper as it serves no purpose. If we go to war I’m sure someone will tell me.” After more than 20 years of following that advice, I can honestly say I do NOT feel I’ve missed a thing.

If you’ve been reading this blog for any time you know 2 of our sons are (excellent / professional) personal trainers, at a local gym. They often comment on how they are training someone who is all hyped-up at work-out time to get fit and trim. Then, later that day they observe their client’s post on Facebook sharing a big plate of donuts or fries they are about to indulge in. The reality: make your choice! Being physically fit requires discipline (not luck).

Our Productivity:

It really isn’t hard to be exceptionally productive and eliminate all forms of competition at work (e.g., for promotions and raises).

For example:

• Who decides what time we get up in the morning (the last possible minute, to get cleaned-up for work)?
• Who decides what time we actually get our butt in the car and hit the road? Are we daily participating in the moving parking lot, wasting 45 or more minutes during a commute, when we could leave before rush hour resulting in a commute taking less than 30 minutes? We’d then get to work early, get a jump start on the day and be able to conveniently leave at quitting time vs. being held over to work on those unexpected things that WILL come up, which MUST be done – today?
• Who decides how much time we spend on distractions at work? This includes talking sports, the plight of our lawn or the federal government and, of course, gossip? What purpose does ANY of this serve towards our goal achievement?
• Who decides how much time we take for breaks or lunch each day? Why do we need either (unless there is a “purpose” for taking a co-worker or client to lunch)? If we are trying to achieve something more in life, why not keep plowing right along (while eating lunch at our desk) and skip the breaks? Doesn’t mean we shouldn’t change our focus from time-to-time throughout the day, to avoid burn-out, by varying our tasks and activities.
• Bottom-line: Who decides how we manage our time? Yes, there are countless outside influences that drive our activities (e.g., our boss, customers, co-workers, spouse and children). However, we can EASILY get control of our time so that we are sure to focus on the MOST IMPORTANT things (ONLY) and let the numerous, mind-boggling, useless distractions just fall by the wayside. I’m not going to share how to do that here, as I’ve already written about that. Simply click here to read more.

To be clear, I’m not suggesting ANYTHING that I haven’t been doing myself – for decades 🙂

Take Nike’s advice and “Just Do It.”

Our Geographic Location:

Have you noticed that we aren’t trees with immovable roots. That is, we can pick up, at any time, and move to ANY destination on this planet we choose. It might be a better/safer neighborhood across town, an entirely different state or a home on a lake (with a view like the following – my goal).

Living in New England we often hear people complaining about how they hate the snow. Guess what? It may now be springtime, but the snow’s coming again! It does so every single year! If you really “hate it” then you can always move somewhere without it!

Back when Cindy was pregnant with our oldest son, we lived in South Portland, ME. I “thought” I hated snow then. I had put my resume out everywhere in America, to find my “next level” job so that we could afford our new family. I landed a job in Atlanta. At that point, we gave or threw away ALL our winter-related gear (clothing, shovels, etc.) and (I) said: “We are never coming back!”

Little did I know…

Not long after living in Georgia, Cindy became homesick. I was able to get her to stay for about 4 years so that I had some stability on my resume 🙂 And, at that point my switch flipped as well, as we watched a Christmas program – with snow gently falling. That did it.

Now that we are back in New England, we realize this is home. We LOVE the snow. When we get tired of it during the winter we can simply hop on a plane to a tropical destination, only to return to hit-the-slopes or snowmobile trails.

Our Vocation:

Being in the free world, we choose:

• Our occupation (what we do for a living) and where we do it (geographic location as well as the company we work for). If we don’t like our occupation, we can change it.
• The company and boss we work for. If we don’t like our boss or company, we can change that too and/or create our own!
• Our pay. Yep, we absolutely do set our pay. We may not be able to change our pay overnight / every night (although there ARE vocations in which you can do that) we can CHOOSE to invest in ourselves to become SO valuable we literally set the amount of pay we receive.

And, so as not to leave you hanging, there are many posts on this site that cover ALL of the above.

Realize, life is too short to constantly go places we don’t enjoy, doing things we don’t truly find rewarding or fulfilling.

We decide!

Our Finances:

I’ll not get into how to manage finances in this article, as there are numerous other posts on this site that provide that.

However, I will share a few zingers…

Regarding income: Many use the excuse that they don’t earn enough. We’ve already covered that, above: If we don’t earn enough we can make the choice to set ourselves up for a promotion or raise by constantly and never-endingly becoming more valuable to society.

Did you realize there is absolutely NO LIMIT to the amount of money a person can make? I’m not suggesting that this become our primary focus. But, we need not “settle for” an income that is not serving our aspirations.

Regarding expenses: Contrary to popular belief, it is NOT how much we make. It is how much we keep! 

Some key questions to determine if our hair is on fire, in this regard:

• Are we continuously incurring interest-related expenses AND increasing our debt-load each year?
• Does spending money (on shiny new things) create more joy than a growing savings and investment account which can create future options and flexibility?
• How much is being spent on “costly” expenses? Cable for instance, jams content in our face via the one-eyed monster. We might ask ourselves: “How much is this “truly” costing me, considering the time wasted while taking in all this content when I could be doing something more productive (like making progress towards my goals and dreams)?

In summary, we quite literally decide upon:

• How much we earn (by how valuable we make ourselves and by how we apply ourselves)
• How much we keep (by how much we sock away vs. aimlessly burn through)

It is ALL OUR CHOICE – our design!

In closing, I know some may feel that all of this sounds too hard and boring. Even rigid and constraining…

Really?!?

If you think that is the case, consider the fact that my wife and I are about to begin our (3rd annual) summer-long break (which begins later this month)…I don’t share this to brag – really. Just demonstrating, through a concrete example, that what is shared on this site can absolutely support the accomplishment of one’s goals and dreams.

You can do it, if you choose – to design your life the way YOU want it to unfold.

All the best!